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August 31, 2006

ICE "Neutralized" Threat of Alien Janitors, Tomato Pickers

But for this ICE News Release, you probably wouldn't have known that "a potential vulnerability has been neutralized," to wit, undocumented janitors toiling away in Florida state office buildings.

And in related news, ICE put the big chill on undocumented tomato pickers in New York.  These workers, prior to being deported, will be criminally prosecuted for using fake green cards or social security cards.

August 30, 2006

California Prison Secrecy Shroud Finally to Be Lifted?

By any sane measure, California’s correctional system is in deep trouble. The Modesto Bee reminds us that it’s also shrouded in secrecy---and has been ever since 1995 when then-Governor Pete Wilson got tired of critical stories about prison abuse and solved that vexing little problem by all but locking out the press.  Now with the system in ever greater chaos, even CA legislators are made nervous by the lack of light, and are mulling over a bill to lift the ban.

Abusing Lawbreaking Kids in Texas

Texas lawmakers look at charges of abuse and neglect at the Evins Juvenile Center in Edinburg, TX, reports KGBT 4 TV.  They find multi years worth of “mistreatment incidents,” a bare two weeks of training for guards, 12-year-olds housed with 18-year-old sex offenders, and more writes LYNN BREZOSKY for AP.

Lawyers Behaving…um…..in Various Ways in NOLA

One year later in post-Katrina New Orleans, while the poor are still taking by far the biggest hit, the devastation is felt in all quarters.  Here’s an interesting take on the world of NOLA attorneys in private practice by LEIGH JONES for the National Law Journal.

Meanwhile, back in criminal court, New Orleans District Attorney Eddie Jordan, who has been getting deservedly slammed for allowing such a monster backlog of cases to pile up for the past year without charges or arraignments, walks out on an ABC Nightline interview with Brian Ross writes VIC WALTERS also for ABC. 

Calif Prison Reform Plan Stalls Out

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's sweeping proposal to ease overcrowding and other woes inside California's beleaguered prison system hit a wall Tuesday as lawmakers said they would reject major pieces of his $6-billion package. One result: California's teeming penitentiaries — already packed to twice their intended capacity — will run out of bed space by June, officials say, and nobody can agree on a plan to quickly create more room. JENNIFER WARREN and JORDAN RAU for The Los Angeles Times.

August 29, 2006

Labor Day: The Next Round of Immigrant Marches

The week of Labor Day will see the next round of pro-immigrant marches. The demonstrations will give voice to opposing enforcement-only reform. DEEPAK BHARGAVA in New American Media.

Business Groups Call for Liberalized Immigration

Texas industry associations and businesses that depend heavily on immigrant labor are banding together to push for an overhaul of immigration law, including a guest worker program. KATHERINE YUNG in the Dallas Morning News.

Immigration Ads Not So Easy for Campaign Ads

Capturing the immigration debate in political ads this campaign season  -- without upsetting Hispanics -- is proving tricky for the parties and candidates. SUZANNE GAMBOA in The Washington Post.

Thank You For Your Help, Now Leave

Sometimes the courts make the news before the media pick up on it.  Today the federal Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit made the hit parade.

We (our government) brought Vatcharee Pronsivakulchai to the U.S. from Thailand to assist the DEA in a sting operation.  Once we were done with her, we sought to deport her.

The Court said, "Don't think so."

Navy Lawyer Charged with Gitmo Leak

Lt. Cmdr. Matthew Diaz, a 40-year-old career US Navy officer who served as a legal consultant at Guantanamo, has just been criminally charged with mailing classified information to an unauthorized person. It seems that some time between 2004 and 2005---during the period that the US was declining to say who was being held at Gitmo---Diaz transmitted classified documents listing names and other identifying information of detainees.  Nobody’s saying to whom the names were sent other than it’s someone at a US-located NGO.  If convicted, Diaz could get more than 36 years in prison.  WILL DUNHAM of Reuters and LARRY O’DELL of AP both have the story.

Happy Anniversary - You’re Still Behind Bars

A year after Katrina’s devastation, New Orleans Judge Arthur Hunter says it’s way past time to start releasing some of the more than 3000 prisoners who’ve been jailed since before the storm hit without ever seeing a lawyer or being actually charged with a crime. Hunter plans to begin reviewing cases today.  "It's something the entire country should be concerned about," he told ROBERT CROWE of the Houston Chronicle. "If we're still part of the United States, and the Constitution still means something, why is the New Orleans criminal justice system still in shambles?".

Tulane law professor, Katherine Mattes, talks to AMY GOODMAN at Democracy Now about Hunter's controversial move.

And in a related development, law students are now working overtime to handle some of these cases, according to LIZA PORTEUS of Fox News.

In Garfield County Jail, Money Equals Treatment?

1 Winning this week’s award for worst handling of the incarcerated mentally ill, Garfield County, Colorado, is being sued by the ACLU for denying treatment to inmates with serious mental problems if the prisoners didn’t have enough $ in their jail accounts, according to  Channel 9 News. Then when the inmates (predictably) acted out, the Garfield County folks strapped them into restraint chairs.  Lovely.

August 28, 2006

Military Lawyers: Bush Admin Limits Input in Terror Trial Design

Despite assuring Congress that career military lawyers are helping design new trials for accused terrorists, the Bush administration has limited their input on their key request, that any tribunals must give detainees the right to see the evidence against them. CHARLIE SAVAGE for The Boston Globe.

SF Chronicle Editorial: The "Costs" of Immigration are a Bogus Tab

The San Francisco Chronicle editorializes against a Congressional Budget Office assumption about excessive costs of immigration.

Immigration Stand-Off in Hazelton, PA

Mayor Louis Barletta has put the small town of Hazelton, PA on the frontlines of the immigration battle. To some he's a hero. To his critics, he's a racist demagogue. MILAN SIMONICH reports for the Pittsburg-Post Gazette.

Banished

Aliens can be denied entry into the United States for a variety of reasons.  But U.S. citizens with passports, under normal circumstances, cannot.  Maybe these are not normal times.

DEMIAN BULWA in the San Francisco Chronicle has the story.  Immigration law scholars are pondering the statutory source of authority for this latest action by the feds.

California Prisons and the Mentally Ill - Eleven Years Later

Mentally ill patients comprise an astonishing 20 percent of California’s prisoners.  Their care is presently under the supervision of Judge Lawrence Karlton, who found in his 1995 ruling that treatment of the mentally ill in the state’s prisons was so poor it violated prisoners' constitutional rights to adequate care.  

Now, more than a decade later, are things getting better?  Not really, writes MASON STOCKSTILL of the Ontario Daily Bulletin as part of a four-part series called Criminal Neglect.

Brown v. the Board of Education – Meet Louisville and Seattle

Here’s a two-sentence summary of the latest news on two school integration cases (both loaded with far-reaching implications) that will be unfolding in the nation’s top court this fall, then heard by the Supremes in December: 

“The Bush administration has urged the Supreme Court to strike down voluntary school integration programs across the nation that exclude some students because of their race.

“Administration lawyers filed briefs this week in pending cases from Seattle and Louisville, Ky., on the side of white parents who are challenging "racial balancing" programs as unconstitutional.” DAVID G. SAVAGE of the Los Angeles Times lays out and analyzes the details.  

 

New Census Data on poverty and health insurance

 

 Tune In!

The U.S. Census Bureau is announcing a lot of interesting new information Tuesday on Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2005, containing findings from the Current Population Survey (CPS); and Income, Earnings, and Poverty Data from the 2005 American Community Survey (ACS). The CPS findings are national, while the ACS findings pertain to states, as well as counties and cities of 65,000 or more people. The ACS report also includes a comparison of earnings for men and women by selected characteristics, including industry and occupation.

http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/news_conferences/007338.html 

 

 

August 27, 2006

Border Patrol Kills A Man Throwing Rocks

The Border Patrol says an agent fatally shot a man who was throwing rocks at him from the Mexican side of the border late Saturday night near Yuma. Tucson TV station KVOA reports.

Single Mom Becomes an Immigration Debate Symbol

An undocumented single mother who has taken up sanctuary in a Chicago church has become the symbol of the national immigration debate. TERESA PUENTE reports for the Houston Chronicle. And a group of Black clergy have offered her support as reported by Civilrights.org.

Peoria Tries Restorative Justice

In March of 2005, Peoria teenager, Montelle Talley, robbed middle-aged minister, Dwight Winnett, at gun point.  Surprisingly, Winnett went to court and asked to personally mentor his robber rather than see him locked up.  Under Illinois Balanced and Restorative Justice Initiative, the court agreed. 

By law, balanced and restorative justice is supposed to be the philosophical underpinning of all juvenile court systems in Illinois. In reality, its implementation is spotty, but growing, writes PAM ADAMS of the Peoria Journal Star.

Staff and Sex in Jails and Prisons – the Gender Factor

 

In jails it’s usually guy staffers who have sex with inmates (and there’s often force or "abuse of power" involved); in prisons it's more commonly the women on staff, and the sexual involvement is likely to be romantic, writes 2004-05 IJJ Criminal Justice Fellow, FRANK GREEN for the Richmond Times-Dispatch

Preventing Suicide in Lock-up

This is a good news/bad news story.  First the bad news: Last year, 44 of the 164,000 inmates in California prisons committed suicide---nearly twice as many as the 26 who took their lives in 2004, and almost double the national average for suicides in prisons. (Yet another un-cheery bellweather re: the overall health of the golden state’s correctional institutions.)

Now the good news:  In a first-of-its-kind "Brother's Keeper" program, for the past 15 months a group of long-term San Quentin inmates have been learning to spot danger signs in fellow prisoners, in addition to being taught suicide prevention techniques.  When the group graduated their course last week, they received lavish praise from SQ Warden Robert Ayers who said he hoped the program would expand, writes KRISTEN BENDER of the San Mateo County Times. 

August 26, 2006

Why the Poor Don’t Vote

The fact that American citizens living in households with incomes of less than $15,000 a year are far less likely to vote than those in the $75,000 and above bracket is an issue that should be of concern to us all, according to COLE KRAWITZ AND JAY TOOLE writing for Newsday.

Collateral Damage: the Kids of War

At present, there are approximately 1.2 million school age children with parents deployed in Iraq.  In addition to the simple loss of the father or mother's presence for extended periods, an increasing number of kids are dealing with a parent’s death, injury and/or psychological disabilities. (1 in 6 soldiers in Iraq report symptoms of major depression, severe anxiety or PTSD.) As a consequence, a large number of those children are considered seriously "at risk" for behavioral and emotional problems, according to a research program called  Strengthening Military Families Following a Parent’s Wartime Deployment” at UCLA’s Neuropsychiatric Institute’s Center For Community Health.

The military itself has recognized the growing issue and has recently launched a program called “Project Ark” that provides intervention and support for some of the most affected teenagers, writes MONIQUE REUBEN for the American Forces Press Service.

Punishing Prisoners’ Families

Study after study suggests that a close and supportive family relationship is one of the primary keys to successful prisoner rehabilitation and reintegration after release.  Yet, many families of California prisoners say that much in the state’s visitor policy makes family contact unnecessarily difficult in the extreme.  This “visiting abuse” will be the subject of a non-violent protest at Salinas Valley Prison tomorrow, Sunday, August 27. 

August 25, 2006

210 Miles of "Zero-Tolerance"

There's a myth that crossing the border illegally is merely a "civil" offense, not a crime.  Wrong.  Crossing illegally is a federal misdemeanor.  But the federal courts would come to a screeching halt if every border crosser were hauled before a magistrate.

On a small scale, however, the feds are doing just that.  ALICIA A. CALDWELL has the story for the Associated Press.

August 24, 2006

Border Governors Meet in Texas

U.S. and Mexican border-state governors have begun a two-day conference in Texas seeking to find common ground on issues of immigration and border security. JUAN CASTILLO for the Austin American-Statesman and LIZ AUSTIN PETERSON for the AP.

Why Immigration Is Now Such a Hot Button

Illegal immigration has become a suburban debate, a Northern debate, and a rural debate. And while it has long been a matter of concern to US citizens, it has recently boiled over with an intensity not seen in decades, if ever. KRIS AXTMAN in the Christian Science Monitor.

TV show 'Survivor' plans to divide teams along racial lines

 

 Survivor, the tv show, is going to divide teams on racial lines.


Racial discrimination case lost

 London, Aug 24 (IANS) An Indian origin scientist, who had claimed he was the subject of racial discrimination at the hands of the scientist credited with creating the cloned sheep Dolly, has lost his case.


Valedictorian: "Soy ilegal."

"Hector Vega is co-valedictorian of James Lick High School in East San Jose, winner of a $20,000 National Merit Scholarship and an entering freshman on a full scholarship at Santa Clara University.

He didn't speak a word of English five years ago when he arrived from Mexico, but he mastered the language in a year, advanced to honors classes and graduated from high school with a 4.0 grade-point average.

Vega is also an illegal immigrant." JESSIE MANGALIMAN in the San Jose Mercury News.

Smoke On The Border

Today DHS Sec. Chertoff heads for South Texas in an attempt to move immigration reform off the dime.  As Marc Cooper notes below ("White House Signals Immigration Compromise,") Bush may be willing to support the Pence / Hutchison plan.

This comes on the heels of Chertoff's announcement of 100% "catch-and-remove" on the southern and northern borders, as reported by LARA LAKES JORDAN for AP. (This begs the question, however, of how many are not being caught on any given day; catching and deporting one while ninety-nine make it through is no big deal.  And we know that nearly half of the 12-20 million "illegals" are really "overstays," people who entered legally on visas and then never left.)

Meanwhile, business isn't buying what the Republicans are selling, as SARAH LUECK writes for the Wall Street Journal.

August 23, 2006

FBI Allows DNA Tracking of Suspects' Families

The FBI has begun permitting police investigators to pursue some criminal suspects by tracking the DNA of close relatives who have been convicted of other offenses. A study published in May in the journal Science concluded that such "partial-match searches" could greatly increase the number of cases solved through the FBI's Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS. Near-match searching, however, is drawing fire from privacy activists, who say it places innocent relatives of criminals and non-relatives with similar DNA profiles under a form of genetic surveillance. RICHARD WILLING for USA Today.

SWAT Teams May Take Increased Border Role

Elite U.S. Border Patrol units armed with assault rifles and stun grenades may be set to play a more prominent role as authorities try to gain greater control over the border with Mexico. TIM GAYNOR for Reuters.

White House Signals Immigration Compromise

As Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff tours the Texas-Mexico border, the White House seems to be ready to cede to congressional conservatives on immigration legislation. JONATHAN WEISMAN in the Washington Post.

Katrina: Portrait of American Poverty

Hurricane Katrina brought the attention of the media and the American public to the tragedy of extreme poverty in the United States. As we look back on the aftermath of the storm and the devastation it wrought, we still see a stark picture of the lack of economic opportunity, inadequate supply of affordable housing, and unequal access to quality heath care. These are three of the hallmarks of extreme and concentrated poverty, and while they were exposed by the hurricane, they are, in fact, endemic to people living in impoverished communities throughout the United States. From the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund.

Civil Rights Law Tested in Washington State

 

 This from AP's Curt Woodward: OLYMPIA -- One of the first tests for Washington state's new gay civil rights law has an intriguing twist: The complaint was filed by a heterosexual woman.The state's discrimination watchdogs are investigating the case, which claims unmarried straight people should get the same domestic partner benefits as their gay and lesbian co-workers.But officials are treading carefully, Human Rights Commission Director Marc Brenman said, because upholding the claim could set a sweeping new precedent for Washington businesses.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/282225_gayrights23.html

Mexican nature park offers mock illegal border crossing

"IXMIQUILPAN, Hidalgo — On a misty, moonless night, the group scurried down the canyon wall, their feet slipping in the ankle-high mud. The sirens grew louder as their guide, clad in a ski mask and known only as Poncho, urged them to run faster. "Hurry up! The Border Patrol is coming!"

A couple in matching designer tennis outfits loped awkwardly along, the boyfriend clutching a digital video camera and struggling to keep the pop-out screen steady.

The 20 or so people fleeing the fictional Border Patrol weren't undocumented immigrants; they were tourists about 700 miles from the border. Most are well-heeled professionals more likely to travel to the United States in an airplane than on foot."  By JEREMY SCHWARTZ, Mexico City Bureau, Austin American-Statesman.

August 22, 2006

Schwarzenegger Prison Plan In Trouble

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has a lot more work to do to convince the Democrat-controlled Legislature to support even portions of his $6 billion prison building plan during this month's special session according to key lawmakers. DON THOMPSON, Associated Press.

California: Immigration Battle Moves to the Courts

Some California businesses are going to court over illegal immigration. They claim that other companies hiring the undocumented are engaging in unfair competition. PETER PRENGAMAN reports for the Associated Press. Meanwhile, the immigration debate blew up in the state legislature. SAMANTHA YOUNG for the AP.

Oakand Takes Extraordinay Anti-Crime Measures

Authorities in Oakland will implement a new program aimed at curbing a violent crime spike. Under the plan, the police will call the city's top 100 crime suspects into court and inform them they must behave. JESSE MCKINLEY in The New York Times.

Let All (Lawbreaking) Kids Be Left Behind

In the last eight years, California’s juvenile detention system, which houses an average of 4000 kids at any given time, has been the subject of 16 studies, investigations and/or audits— each exposing various aspects of the system's inadequate mental health care, abusive staff, poor educational services, appalling safety conditions, and a host of other problems. So what has been done as a result of the investigations et al to fix all these deficiencies?  Precious little, reports NOAM N. LEVEY for the Los Angeles Times.  Most of the facilities are “in the same woeful condition as ten years ago."

August 21, 2006

Media Frenzy Over JonBenet Ramsey Case

A decade after her death, the JonBenet Ramsey story again seems to be running on a 24/7 closed loop. The trajectory of the JonBenet story highlights a new stratification of television news. The major broadcast networks that once set the nation's news agenda have settled into a less powerful evening niche offering more traditional journalistic fare while their cable rivals have matured into a kind of 24-hour tabloid broadcast, more like the Daily News than The New York Times. As such, they're more likely to focus on the sensational to keep their ratings up. ALEXANDRA MARKS reports for the Christian Science Monitor.

ACLU Sues To Halt PA. Anti-Immigrant Law

An ordinance that classifies certain immigrants as "illegal," punishes landlords and employers who do business with those immigrants and makes English the official language is unconstitutional and should be blocked immediately, according to a lawsuit filed today by the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund and the American Civil Liberties Union. Via Civilrights.org

Tougher Border Laws Not Likely

Lawmakers around the country are passing state laws to get tough on illegal immigration, but legal experts say many of those laws will turn out to be unconstitutional. The AP reports.

Easy Rider (Not!)

Think you are tough enough?  How about a ride in the desert, on a used mountain bike, a "rusted Chinese model with fat tires and wing handlebars," - chased by the Border Patrol!  Not for the faint of heart.  An unnamed REUTERS writer (say that five times fast) has the story; photog TIM GAYNOR has the shot.

A Rare Fit of Compassion

A Congolese woman, caught up in political terror at home, sought asylum in the U.S.  Her claim was denied by the Immigration Court, likewise at the Board of Immigration Appeals ("BIA") and the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.  But now, in a rare fit of compassion - or maybe just common sense - the attorney for ICE (Immigration & Customs Enforcement) has joined in a motion to the BIA to reopen the case.  HENRY WEINSTEIN tells the tale in the Los Angeles Times.

U.S. CITIZEN SETTLES ASSAULT CASE AGAINST U.S. BORDER PATROL OFFICIAL AND U.S. GOVERNMENT

"Bettina Casares, a 37-year old U.S. citizen and former member of the U.S. Air Force, never imagined that U.S. Border Patrol Inspector Zerrick Scott would assault her after she returned from Matamoros, Mexico with family members for an Easter celebration in the Rio Grande Valley. But on April 20, 2003, when Casares attempted to enter the United States with her sister-in-law and brother via the Brownsville-Matamoros International Bridge, that is exactly what happened."  Here's news of the settlement; Texas RioGrande Legal Aid has a second case - involving the death of a U.S. citizen at the same port of entry - pending.

Immigration reforms may face legal challenges....

 

This from AP: Legislatures around the country are passing state laws to get tough on illegal immigration, but legal experts say many of those laws will turn out to be unconstitutional. More than 550 bills relating to illegal immigration were introduced in statehouses this year, and at least 77 were enacted, according to a survey presented last week at the annual meeting of the National Conference of State Legislatures.However, NCSL analyst Ann Morse told lawmakers at the conference that a 1986 federal law forbids states from enacting stricter criminal or civil penalties that those adopted by Congress.

http://www.salon.com/wire/ap/archive.html?wire=D8JJN9JO0.html